Category: <span>Photography</span>

Published October 5, 2022 by

Toronto, Spend Your Savings – 2022_10_05

Toronto, Spend Your Savings
Yonge Street, Toronto, 1981 – © Avard Woolaver

Taken on Yonge Street in the autumn of 1981, this photo always gives me a little chuckle. It features a very 1980s-looking garbage bin (trash receptacle), some sidewalk art, and the phrase: Spend Your $avings. Also, a cigarette butt and a few scattered leaves. The shadows cross the frame in an interesting way. It suits my mood at the moment as I listen to Jefferson Airplane’s 1967 experimental psychedelic album, After Bathing at Baxters, and sip cold coffee.

Spend Your Savings seems like both a demand and a plea. I laugh because I managed to do just that before leaving Toronto in 2005.

This photo appears in the photo book: Toronto Hi-Fi.

Photography

1980s film photography Spend Your Savings street photography Toronto

Published October 4, 2022 by

Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto – 2022_10_04

Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto
Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto, 1996 – © Avard Woolaver

Roncesvalles Avenue is one of my favourite areas of Toronto. I lived just west of there on Parkside Drive in the mid-1990s. The street is named after the Battle of Roncesvalles, which took place in the Roncesvalles Pass in Spain in 1813. (In Spanish the name ‘Roncesvalles’ means ‘valley of thorns’.)

Culturally, the area is known as the centre of the Polish community in Toronto with prominent Polish institutions, businesses and St Casimir’s Catholic Church. When I lived there in the 1990s there were lots of Polish restaurants and bakeries, as well as two second-run movie theatres–The Revue, and The Brighton. It was a really vibrant place, and probably still is.

This photo was taken diptych-style, a technique I still use to highlight juxtaposition. It appears in the photo book: Toronto Hi-Fi.

Photography

1990s film photography Roncesvalles Avenue street photography Toronto

Published October 3, 2022 by

Hip To Be Square – 2022_10_03

Square format
Carlton Street, Toronto, 1980 – © Avard Woolaver

In my first few months in Toronto in 1980, I used a square format, twin lens reflex (TLR) camera–the Yashica-Mat 124G. The camera is held at waist level and you look down into the viewfinder, it is a unique perspective as usually cameras such as the SLR are held up at eye level. Famed outsider photographer Vivian Maier used a TLR camera for much of her work. The low angle gives her street portraits a more noble, stately look. Sometimes it’s hip to be square!

I recently purchased a new scanner–an Epson V600, and at last can scan the medium format negatives that I shot in Toronto many years ago. I find that I’m remembering my 22 year old self.

Photography Toronto

1980s 6x6 Epson V600 scanner film photography square format Toronto Yashica-Mat 124G

Published September 29, 2022 by

Inside Ralph’s Barbershop – 2022_09_29

Barbershop, Toronto, 1980s
Ralph’s Barbershop, Keele Street, Toronto, 1983 – © Avard Woolaver

There were several barbershops in West Toronto Junction when I lived there in the 1980s. I liked Ralph’s Barbershop because of the nice light and ambiance. It was the classic community gathering place where men sat and talked as they waited their turn. I asked Ralph if I could take some photos, and went there a few times with my camera.

Photography

1980s barbershop documentary photography film photography The Junction Toronto West Toronto Junction

Published September 23, 2022 by

More of my favourite light – 2022_09_23

my favourite light
Windsor, Nova Scotia, 2022 – © Avard Woolaver

Winter sun shining directly overhead, illuminating wet pavement. This is my favourite light, and I try to capture it whenever I can. The silver road beckons.

Photography

my favourite light new topographics Nova Scotia photography silver road winter light